15, 17, 19 Main Street, Beith, Beith, North Ayrshire

Entry Name: 15, 17, 19 Main Street, Beith

Listing Name: 15-19 (Odd Nos) Main Street, Including Return to Reform Street and Former Bakery Buildings to Rear

Listing Date: 2 December 1980

Category: C

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 331374

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB929

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200331374

Location: Beith

County: North Ayrshire

Electoral Ward: Kilbirnie and Beith

Parish: Beith

Traditional County: Ayrshire

Tagged with: Architectural structure

Description

Circa 1800; early 19th century return wing fronting Reform Street. 2-storey, 5-bay façade to Main Street (central 1st floor window blocked) with later shopfronts to ground; gable end to Reform Street with 4 windows (1 blocked). Modern render to principal elevation and gable (replacing traditional lime harl); raised and painted window and angle margins. Moulded eaves course. 2-storey return with pend to ground; window to 1st and 2nd floors; cherry-caulked whinstone with raised ashlar margins and droved tabs. Carved armorial lintel to 1st floor window of rear elevation (probably reset).

Timber sash and case windows (formerly 12-pane, astragals knocked out); lying-pane to gable (8-pane). Grey slates; straight skews; end stacks.

INTERIOR: derelict shell to Main Street 1st floor and attic (2003); stone scale and platt stair with cast-iron balustrade and timber handrail; remains of moulded chimneypieces; 2 bricked up 4-centred arches (possibly buffet niches). To return wing: stone steps to elevated ground floor room (above pend) with reeded cornice; reeded architraves and panelled shutters with raised fields in panelled embrasures; panelled doors with 6 raised fields; deep architraved bed recess; chimneypiece; evidence of chair rail (since removed).

FORMER BAKERY BUILDINGS: forming courtyard with 2-6 Reform Street (separately listed). Range at right angles to rear of Main Street: 2 storeys; rubble-built (sandstone, whinstone and field boulders, evidence of lime harl); height probably raised by 1 storey; irregularly-spaced openings to courtyard with raised, droved sandstone margins; blocked openings; later corrugated metal roof; later brick lean-to to courtyard. Range parallel to Main Street: 2 storeys, 3 bays with altered carriage arch (now door and window) to centre within courtyard; 3 regularly-spaced windows to 1st floor with original timber sash and case 12-pane windows; whinstone with droved sandstone margins; grey slate roof, slates in diminishing courses.

Statement of Interest

Situated on a prominent corner site at the entrance to Main Street, the building now terminates Main Street to the south west, forming the return. The buildings that formed the opposite side of Reform Street are long since demolished.

The interiors of Main Street and the Reform Street range suggest a smart dwelling. The mouldings and timber panelling are of good quality and the reeding indicative of Regency taste. The room in the return range contained a bed within the recess. This was a practical arrangement as the bed would be free from draughts and the chimneypiece in this room would provide heat during the day, lasting into the night. The bakery buildings functioned as such until relatively recently. Original ovens remain, now enclosed within the walls. The carriage arch served to transfer flour presumably to and from the store above to carts though a hatch in the 1st floor.

The buildings, including 2-6 Reform Street, have recently (2003) been purchased by St Vincent Crescent Preservation Trust who plan to carefully restore and convert them into housing.

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.